Texas Swagger

Back when I visited my family in Houston this past Christmas, I dared not bring up the subject of Barack Obama. Back in the '90s our household was a Clinton Hate Free Zone. The scandals? Healthcare failures? Losses of Democratic majorities? The Clintons could do no wrong. My brother and dad, the former a cop and the latter a mailman, would not be swayed from abandoning Hill, Bill, and the goodwill they shared with America's blue collar workers. Even my graduate school bound sister who usually took the highroad and stayed out of petty political arguments would weigh in with: "Morrison said he's blacker than us all!" Yup, back in the day, our house defended the fall of the House of Clinton through and through. And besides, with Dean, Nader, and Bradley on my record an argument on my behalf hasn't proven to be Las Vegas worthy.

"Obama! Obama! Obama," my dad boomed over the phone last week. Wha-?! What about the 90s? Or.. or what about the VRWC? And the economy? Stupid!! "Obama's the man!" is all my dad shot back with. Wait a second. Back up a minute, Pops. Does this mean that after all of these years of me being marginalized as the left wing of the Democratic party and all of these years of being shut out of the Clinton Centralizing Machine are finally over? Done? Stuck a fork in?

The end of abnormalizing: anti-war, anti-queer, anti-poverty, anti-backroom politics? Could it really be?

No. Way.

Obviously there is still a race going on for the nomination. But as of today, Obama leads in the popular vote, states won, pledged delegates, and converts moving closer to perverts like me. That's something to tip your hat to.

Light,

Andre L.